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On Mike McLaughlin

We were hoping that our outrage would die down after hearing that former Chelsea Housing Authority Director Mike McLauglin might walk if he turns out to be a good helper and offer up some other politicians to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

We are very disappointed in this deal by the US Attorney’s office. In our view, McLaughlin deserves jail time. He deceived federal and state auditors with outright lies and his outrageous salary of more than $300,000 per year perhaps may have deprived some of our most vulnerable citizens of a decent place to live. We can only surmise that some repair projects were put on hold as the money was needed to be funneled to McLaughlin’s salary.

He has pleaded guilty to four counts that carry weighty fines and jail time.

The once arrogant McLaughlin has been humbled.

We hope that it is not too late for the US Attorney’s office to give this crook the jail time that he deserves.

As it stands today, while McLaughlin will likely lose his state pension, he still will be able to keep most of the ill gained salary that he was paid in the last five years, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, he will get back all of the money that he put into the state pension system.

In our view, jail time in cases such as these not only punishes the perpetrators, but also serves as a deterrent to others who may be tempted to betray the public trust. Crime is not supposed to pay. But McLaughlin has shown that in his case, it does, thanks to the reportedly inexplicable plea agreement of the US Attorney’s